Happy 4th!

I try to do something fun, yet small & simple for my team for the holidays. But this time for the 4th of July, I needed something super easy... I was a little burned out (and sleep deprived) from making all the teacher appreciation & baby shower stuff last week.

So, this is what I came up with. Lifesaver firecrackers. Ok, I have to admit, these are probably the easiest thing I've made. Tie with twine, and wrap the candy. That's really all there is too it! This may be an annual tradition, right along with the chocolate roses... *wink*

Teacher Appreciation

Last week was Nate's last week of school. Jen and I decided it would be fun to send a teacher appreciation gift every day for the last week. (I know, teacher appreciation was back in April, but going along with my "wait until the last minute" nature, I waited until the last week of school!).

We crafted EVERY night. Kind of reminded me of boutique season. It is always fun to get together and craft. Every time I do it, I remember how much I miss it.

So here's Monday's gift. A stack of 10 cards that say "A Note from Mrs. Brighton" in a cute little matching box:

Tuesday's gift was this little gift box. Inside is a box of Theater candy. I think Reeses Pieces. And attached is a little post it note key ring. Nate wrote on the inside of the post it note.. "OWL always remember Mrs. Brighton"

I've seen several versions of this on the internet and various blogs. They are so cute!! I was going to do a 6 pack, but at Walmart, there was only ONE six pack left in the whole store. So, we thought that one bottle looked just as cute.

And these are giant clothespin photo frames. I actually had a picture of Nate on the first day of school standing next to Mrs. Brighton's door-- pointing to the poster of all the kids names on it. It was perfect! I matted it and stuck it in the clothespin. We also wrapped a SKOR candy bar with a tag that said "Mrs. Brighton helped me to achieve high Skors"

And finally Friday. Since it was July 1st, and the last day of school, we gave this to her on Friday. It is three rolo sticks wrapped to look like dynamite. They turned out so cute!!! Package two of them up in a painted box and there you have it.

Nate loved giving his teacher gifts throughout the year, and I know Mrs. Brighton loved them also. She always took the time to send home notes of thanks. Actually, Friday, after the week was over, the thank you card she sent home was the ones that we gave her on Monday. I smiled as I opened it. I'm glad that she will put them to use.

Next year is kind of sad. It will be the last year I make things for Nate's teachers. And I'll be doing it solo... as Tyler will be going to Jr. High.... It's a sad day for Nate as he rode his bike to school for the last time with Ty. But one more year, and I will be the mom of a Jr. High boy myself.... Yikes!!!

Shower Gifts...

Have I mentioned how wonderful my friend Jen is? Yeah, several times I'm sure.

Jen has one of the new Imagine machines. It's on my wish list... It's about a $500 machine!! But until then, I just go to her house and use hers. Thank heavens for friends with connections! (Jen got hers for free when she worked at Provo Craft!).

She made these adorable ones-ies for her new niece/nephew. At the time she didn't know what it was. I loved them and wanted to make some for a girl on my team that was having a baby girl. It wasn't her first baby, so we didn't have a shower for her, but I still wanted to get her a little gift.

So, we went to Walmart and bought a pack of 5 newborn ones-ies for $6. 15 minutes later, we had this:

Aren't they the cutest thing ever?? And so little. Kinda makes me wish these were around when Nate was little.

Anyway. I rolled them up and mixed them with some really cute baby girl wash cloths...

And for the team, I made these little baby girl "favors". They are from the Stampin' up mini milk carton die. This die is my new favorite!! I love it. It is so easy, it cuts and scores everything for you. All you do is fold and glue. Tie some ribbon and viola! (There are even "open" stamps you can stamp on them, but I didn't stamp these ones. I was in too big of a hurry.

These are tiny!! To give you an idea for size, here's one with a quarter next to it. And they are just as cute open as they are closed.

I filled these with skittles. So when you open them, the candy "pours" out... just like a milk carton.

So funny story. The girl was due on Saturday. On Friday, she hadn't even started to dilate. No contractions, nothing. When I left work on Friday, she said she'd see me at work on Monday if she didn't go into labor. So I figured Monday, after our mandatory meeting would be a good time to give her the gift because the whole team would be there. Monday morning I get to work, and around 10 am, she calls. Guess what... she was in the hospital. She had delivered on Sunday!!! LOL..... Soo... we passed out the candy and ate it anyway. And, I'm hoping I get to see her or she brings the baby in, because by the time she comes back from maternity leave in September, the onesies won't fit anymore.

Guess next time I won't wait until the VERY last possible minute!!! (Yeah right!).

Birthday Cupcakes!

Are these the cutest things ever??

They are cupcakes, but they are made out of fuzzy socks. Roll them up & put them in a cricut cut cupcake wrapper. Add a cherry, and viola! Put in a bag and tie with ribbon.

I made these for some visiting teaching friends, and other friends. People say they are too cute to open... but I promise, the socks are SOFT!! Totally worth opening :)

Chocolate Roses...

I have made these roses almost every year for Valentines for as long as I can remember. They are so easy and fun. They are just hershey kisses, floral stem wire, floral tape, & red and green cellophane.

I think they are so adorable to just take to work and lay one across everyone on the team's keyboard.

They are also cute all wrapped up in cellophane.

This year they are for the ladies that I visit teach, and also for Nate's teacher. Everyone deserves roses on Valentines day, and these ones are the best kind! They are affordable (not $60 a dozen) and they taste good too!!

Here is Nate with the "dozen" roses that he took to his teacher... Mrs. Brighton.

And just for fun, I'm tossing in this picture. This is when Nate was 14 months old, and these are the roses he took to his sitter on Valentines' Day... She loved them!! (This pic was taken in 2001 at 6 AM! ).

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Boutique Leftovers...

As promised.. Here's the boutique leftovers. I don't really have a lot left, but the things that i do have, i have A LOT of! Need to get rid of all the candy so I don't eat it! LOL... email me with orders... [email protected].

Christmas cards.. I have 10 of these... $1.50 each!


These M&M sticks I have about 10 red ones and 10 green ones. $1.00 Each. The little Santas and Elves have either peppermint patties or cookies and cream patties inside. They are 50 cents. I have about 100 of each!! LOL.




These are Kid's Kards. These are a top seller every year. There's 5 stamped cards & 5 envelopes along with a box of crayons... Kids can color them and give to their friends, grandparents, teachers, etc... I have 4 of these $4.00 each.

These are Symphony bars. There's the "homemade fudge" poem on the back. Pretty close to homemade fudge if you ask me! I have 22 reindeer and 31 Santas. $2.00 each or 3/$5.oo. (Mix and match with the other candy items too).

These are also Symphony bars with the "Homemade Fudge" poem. They are a little more "subtle". $2.00 each or 3/$5.00. (Mix and Match)

Love these little reindeer noses. There's 8 reindeer noses (whoppers) plus one red one (sour cherry) for rudolph. I sold the most of these, but I made the most.. since I loved them. I have 37 left! Yikes!! Will sell these for $1 if you buy more than 5! Otherwise, mix and match 3/$5.

Sneak Peek!

Yes, I'm a paper crafter.. but I think I spend more on candy than paper!!! HAHA.. well at this time of year anyway.

So here's a "sneak peek" at some of this year's boutique items... If you swing by, mention my blog and identify any one of these candies... There'll be a free treat waiting for you! See you there...

Halloween Crafts...

Well, I didn't do any Halloween boutiques this year... The holiday kinda snuck up on me! But did want to make something for the processors on my team... So a friend at work showed me the link for these super cute oreo suckers. I made the tags with my new cricut cartridge that I got from Ebay (Had to show Charley that I was actually going to put it to use!!).


And these cute little hats have reeses peanut butter cups in them... So to get an idea for size, they are very small... All of these are on a paper plate, if that gives you any idea. I made 60 of these for our Halloween pot luck.

Next up... Christmas Boutiques!

Boss' Day 2010

I have always been the one to organize "Boss' Day" for the team at our work. Well, after moving to supervisor last month, I assumed I wouldn't really be doing any more for boss' day.

Don't know why I didn't think about it sooner, but I DO still have a boss! lol... So, once again, I'm here making boss' day gifts.

This year is just like the boxes that I did last year. But, since we are a team of 5 supervisors, there wasn't a lot of need for space... We just had our retreat last month where we went on the tour of the capitol building, went to Goodwood for lunch, and then went to Boondocks. So this was the perfect opportunity to use those pictures.

Here's the final result.. Marianne's "Scrapbook in a Box"


These aren't colors that I normally work with.. in fact, I had to borrow the paper from Jen because I don't even buy these colors. But they just went perfectly with the pictures to make them stand out. They colors are Orange, turquoise, brown and yellow.

As the box opens, there's 5 flaps. One flap for each of us. Each of the flaps is a "pocket" where a card pulls out. This is where we all signed it. The rest was ALL pictures. There are 24 total pictures in the box. These things are VERY hard to photograph, but hopefully you can get the idea as to how this folds/unfolds.

I also made a matching "gift card" holder where we put a $50 bill for her to pamper herself with.

I'm back!

OK, it's been a while. Time to pull out the scrap stuff and get busy.. my first boutique of the season is on Nov. 5th. Yikes!!!

I'll also be at the "Girls Day Out Boutique" again at the West Valley Fitness Center, Saturday, November 20th. More details to come...

Charley's Birthday Card...

Charley and I kind of have a "fortune cookie" motif going on in our relationship. When we were first dating, I think he was a little more ready for a "relationship" than I was. The first time I went to Idaho with him, we at at a chinese buffet. My fortune cookie said something about "grabbing a hold of the relationship given to me" we just kind of laughed about it.

So when Charley propsed, he had fortune cookies made, and the fortune read "Sarah will you marry me". I still have the fortune!

So this was mine & Nate's little project... Charley's birthday card!

We made this little chinese box and filled it with paper "fortune cookies". Gotta admit, it was pretty fun to make... and Charley loved it!

I will definately make more of these! So quick and easy, and so cute!

Notebooks for the Girls...

Lauren & Holly wanted to give their friends something for Christmas so I thought these little notebooks would be perfect.

As things always do, it actually turned into quite the project! I ended up doing 10 of them! 4 for each of their friends, and then one for Lauren & one for Holly.

And this is what they looked like all packaged up with the matching beaded pens. Each one a little different, but pretty much the same colors. Lauren's friends just said "notes" because I didn't know if it was COOL or not to have a notebook with your name on it in high school. Holly's friends each had names on them...

Boutique Stragglers...

Now that the boutiques have wound down.. I feel like I can breathe! I've forgotten how much fun they are, but how much work they are behind the scenes! All said and done, it was definately worth it! We never would have made it financially the last few months without them. Although a small part of me wishes this could be a year round thing... the better part of me appreciates that it's not!

Here are a few things that I made post-boutique for special orders. These little Santas & Elves wore out my scallop punch. It was so hard to punch at the end that I recruited Charley to punch them all for me. I officially have permission to buy a new scallop punch!

These boxes turned out so cute! They were actually custom made for pretzel rods. A friend at work ordered 30 of them and they turned out so cute. Afterwards she decided they were also super cute to fill them with other candies. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year... I think they'd be really cute in square also!

And the biggest hit of the season were these little candy bars. I think I bought over 200 symphony bars from Winco. That's definately my new favorite store for craft candy! The cashier over there knows me. (Or should I say they know Charley.. *wink*).

Boutique Tomorrow!

Come on over if you're in the Sandy area...

Another Boutique... Nov 28th & Dec 5th

I'll be at another boutique tomorrow.. Come on out if you're in the Sandy area. It's in the primerica building, right off 90th S. and I15. (Exact address 9055 S. 255 W)
I will also be there Saturday, Dec. 5th. Hours for both Saturdays are 10 am-5 pm

Here's a sneak peak of some of the new items I will have there. I wanted to make a few "small" things for younger kids age. Kind of like the treats they would take to school or to their teachers.


Here is another version of "Homemade Christmas Fudge" Yes, they are Symphony bars (which in my book is pretty heavenly fudge).

These are little round "Palmers" brand candies. Some are peppermint and some are cookies and cream. (Did I mention that I LOVE bulk at Winco?? Makes boutique candy shopping so much easier!!). There are 4 candies per bag here.

These are "Reindeer Noses." One nose for Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donnor, Blitzen & Ruldolph!

This is kind of a spin off of those crazy spiders that I did a million of at Halloween. I think I will sell these separately for like 50 cents... but then they look kind of cute packaged together, so I think I will do that also.

And these are little candy canes with the same "Santa" face. I really like this Santa, but I'm having a hard time getting the paper to stick to the candy cane. (This is the time when I wish I had some "cheap" quality cardstock... my stampin up cardstock is so heavy weight).